In a modern hospital setting, it is common for patients to be treated with some form of infusion therapy. Typically, the fluid to be infused into the patient is supplied in a bottle or a flexible bag, which is connected to the patient by an IV tubing set. The IV tubing set typically depends on the pressure head supplied by gravity to infuse the patient with the fluid, and/or is adapted to interface with an infusion pump. Infusion pumps are often required, particularly if the infusate contains a dissolved medication that must be administered to the patient according to a particular regimen.
IV tubing sets conventionally use a vented spike to puncture the supply bag and allow the outflow of fluid through the IV tubing. The connection between spike and bag occasionally leaks fluid, which then tends to drip along the IV tubing. If an infusion pump is being used, the exterior of the tubing set may become a conduit by which the pumping mechanism can be contaminated by the leaking liquid. These liquids frequently include sticky sugars or powerful drugs, neither of which are desirable to have contaminating the moving parts of the pumping mechanism.
Various approaches for coping with this problem have been seen in commercial infusion pumps. For example, the "Travenol Flo-gard 6200" brand infusion pump, sold by Baxter International Inc., Deerfield, Ill., is loaded with the IV tubing making an inverted U-shaped curve so that there is a tubing segment which turns upward as it enters the pump enclosure. Leaking liquid drips off the tubing where the upward-turned segment begins, which is outside the pump enclosure. This arrangement is considered by some to be difficult to load.
In the "Gemini PC-1" and "Gemini PC-2" brand infusion pumps, sold by IMED Corporation, San Diego, Calif., the peristaltic pumping mechanism is covered by a flexible polymeric sheet to prevent contamination by dripping liquid. The "Gemini" brand pumps also include a groove formed in the handle for receiving the IV tubing and setting a bend in that tubing before it enters the pumping mechanism.
In the "Travenol Flo-gard 6100" brand infusion pump, sold by Baxter International Inc., Deerfield, Ill., an upper surface has a notch which helps orient the tubing assembly for proper loading into the pumping assembly.
In the "Valleylab Infutrol 6000" and "Valleylab Infutrol 6006" brand infusion pumps, sold by Ivion Corporation, Englewood, Colo., the tubing set includes a pumping cassette that is mounted on the infusion pump with both upstream and downstream sections of IV tubing extending downwardly from the cassette.